


Robin Hood: A Thief in the Void

by jedilordrevan



Category: Robin Hood (Traditional), Robin Hood - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Space Opera, F/M, Robin Hood References, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 08:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25467736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedilordrevan/pseuds/jedilordrevan
Summary: Robin Hood but in his space high school.(It was a challenge). Read to experience Robin's struggle as he learns about the debt his beloved school has and how he goes about 'securing' the money to help it.
Relationships: Maid Marian/Robin Hood
Kudos: 4
Collections: Fanfic Roulette 2020 Round 1





	Robin Hood: A Thief in the Void

“This isn’t going well,” Robin muttered under his breath.

He looked over his seat’s restraints as the frigate went through increasingly complex maneuvers in a frantic bid to escape its pursuers. Satisfied that he wasn’t in danger of being launched out of his seat, he took a moment to look at his friend in the captain’s seat, Will Scarlet. Normally, it was Robin himself barking out the orders during missions, but he had decided that for today’s quest, he would be the gunner. And so, he forced Will, the usual gunner, to the command chair.

“It would be good practice,” Robin remembered telling Will. “I won’t always be there to micromanage the ship. It’s just smart thinking for someone else to get their reps in.”

In theory, Robin felt he had been telling the truth, but realistically, he just liked manning the turrets. He always welcomed the opportunity to show off his marksmanship. Only Will, who was currently having a panic attack on the captain’s seat, came close to Robin’s accuracy. Now if only something would come vaguely close to where his guns where pointed.

“Robin, I don’t hear those turrets firing!” Will screamed and knocked Robin out of his daydreaming. “I count the same number of fighters as when we started” He continued. “Either the turrets are dead, or you’ve been missing this entire time and are just too dang embarrassed to share.”

“I don’t have a single shot Will,” Robin replied. “Somehow, Alain’s piloting has managed to keep all the fighters on the opposite side of our guns”

“Hey, fuck you Robin.” Alain interjected. “I was told to let the fighters pass by, and that’s what I did.”

“Shields are at 40%” Johns mentioned.

“Shit,” Will whispered. Will opened his mouth, as if he wished to speak further, but nothing came out.

Robin easily recognized the panic on his face. Will had the same tell for years; His eyes would narrow but his pupils would jump erratically. Frankly, Robin always thought Will was narrowing his eyes on purpose so that the pupil thing wasn’t as obvious; Never quite worked though.

“Johns, all shields to the rear,” Will finally mustered his voice. “Alain, head towards quadrant 3. There is an asteroid field we can lose these fighters in”.

“Belay that order,” Robin finally shouted.

It was honestly difficult. Robin didn’t want to interrupt Will’s ‘learning experience’, but… well, when you know the right move to make, it is really difficult to stand by and watch as someone continues to make every wrong move. Now isn’t the time to be hesitant though, now is the time to be bold.

“Alain, full power to the thrusters! Climb!” Robin commanded.

“Robin, what are you doing? I am…” Will started to say.

With no patience for Will’s whining however, Robin continued. “On my mark, Alain, I want you to about face, and Johns, all remaining power to the forward shields.”

“Aye aye,” both Alain and Johns chorused.

The frigate pitched up and quickly began to climb. The dozens of fighters following soon matched the action. Robin waited. He didn’t have enough power remaining in the frigate to be sloppy. He slowly felt more and more heavy in his seat as the inertial dampeners struggled to match the forces from the sharp climb.

“On my mark,” Robin readied. “5, 4, 3…” Robin began to internally count. He looked over at Will and saw a new emotion: Anger. Robin was going to have to prepare for a ‘discussion’ when this was all done and over with.

“Mark,” Robin commanded. The frigate immediately pivoted; Will almost fell out of his seat, more focused on his annoyance with Robin than the situation at hand. For the first time in this fight, Robin welcomed the new targets on his turret’s sensor. 

“Its been a pleasure,” Robin stated to no one in particular, “But I think we need some space.” He opened fire. His targets returned the favor.

“Shields flaring! Power is at 20% and dropping quickly,” Johns yelled.

“Alain, aileron roll now” Robin ordered while firing.

“Engaging” Alain responded. The frigate rolled and the laser fire soon became a curtain of death as bolts hit and rapidly disabled the opposing fighters. Robin was as an angel of death as he rapidly pinpointed lasers onto each of his targets; His eyes rapidly focusing and re-focusing as he planned out his fire… At least, he did until his screen went dead.

“Wait, what?” Robin exclaimed in shock. “Why is my monitor dead?” Robin finally looked at the rest of the crew. He noticed that everyone else’s monitors were dead as well. “Did we run out of power Alain?” Robin asked. Alain opened his mouth, but Will responded first.

“Yes, you jackass!” Will looked annoyed. “Johns tried to tell you that the shield batteries were completely depleted. You just weren’t paying attention.”

Robin looked towards the front screen of the ship. It no longer showed the black emptiness of space, but rather simply spelled out the words ‘Simulation Failed’ in big bold red letters over a matte black background. “Well, uh, why didn’t you give an order?” Robin tried to ask as placatingly as possible.

“You made it quite clear that I wasn’t acting captain anymore” Will was definitely was not happy.

Robin held his tongue for a moment. He could have said that he was sorry, but he didn’t really feel like he had anything to be sorry for. He offered Will a chance to pilot; when it became clear that Will wasn’t performing up to the expected standards, Robin had stepped up. Robin decided to simply say, “You are angry Will”. After seeing the many expressions that Will’s face cycled through, Robin decided that he probably should have just apologized; even if he did hate lying to his friends.

“I am angry?” Will asked through gritted teeth. Will exploded in rage, “YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME TO BE CAPTAIN! WHY DID YOU OVERRIDE MY ORDERS!”

Robin didn’t want to yell back at his friend, but he made sure to be stern in his response. “Because you gave the wrong commands. Do you know how large asteroid fields are? What did you want me to do? Stay quiet and let…”

“YES!” Will yelled his interruption. “YOU. TOLD. ME. TO. BE. CAPTAIN.” Will slowly repeated. He took a few deep breaths and tried his best to calm down. When he opened his mouth to speak again, Robin could tell he succeeded… somewhat at least. “Robin, you have to decide. Do you want to be Captain or the Gunner? Because you clearly can’t be both.”

Robin opened his mouth to retort, but then a loud alarm filled the bridge. He looked down at the gauntlet around his arm; here was the source of the noise. He clicked the blinking green button. “On screen” Robin told the gauntlet.

A bald-headed man replaced the ‘Simulation Failed’ text on the monitor. He opened his mouth and began to speak.

“I hope that I am not interrupting your scrimmage, but we have some guests,” the Man said. “I would appreciate it if you could come out and introduce yourselves.”

“As you wish Professor Tuck” Robin responded. Professor Tuck nodded and the screen reverted to displaying ‘Simulation Failed’. Robin turned back to Will. He took a deep breath and exhaled tiredly. “I guess you will want to get back to this at some point, but we have our orders. Johns, could you lower the doors? Let’s head out”.

The now opened hanger doors caused a piecing light to infect the interior. Robin almost had to close his eyes as he led his friends outside.

“Why is it so damn bright?” Robin asked in annoyance. “Damn science club and their ultra-bulbs.” He grumbled.

Looking around the lab, Robin’s eyes slowly attempted to process all the blind spots away from his vision. Eventually, he felt a hand on his shoulder subtly point him in the direction of the lab’s guests.

“Thanks, Johns” Robin mumbled. “They could have said some something though.”

“I think I speak for all parties involved; it was much more entertaining to watch you stumble around in blindness,” Johns chuckled. “Maybe they just decided to save you your pride and not address it.”

Robin’s eyes flicker in annoyance as he starts to walk towards Professor Tuck and his two guests. “I’m sorry Johns. That was so funny, I forgot how to laugh.”

The four boys eventually reached the Professor and stood at attention.

“Professor?” Robin asked. He watched as the Professor turned around in modest shock. Robin was pretty sure that Johns was right.

“Ah yes, Robin and friends. Good.” Professor Tuck turns around to get the attention of the two strangers.

“We have names professor,” Alain grumbled. “I think we deserve to be known as more than just ‘Robin’s Friends’”.

“Well, all of us except you Alain,” Johns mocked, “Hooked on Robin’s man breasts as you are.”

“Both of you, Shut it.” Will interrupted. “Read the fucking room.” 

“That’s right Robin friend 2. Robin friends 1 and 3, both of you be quiet.” Robin added.

Either by luck or choice, Professor Tuck finally walked his two guests over once the commentary among Robin’s friends was over.

“Allow me to introduce you,” Professor Tuck began, “To four members of the Kopernik Student Council.” He walked over to Robin and gestured at him with his hand before speaking. “This is Robin Hood and he is the student council president.” Professor Tuck moved on to the others. “This is Lit Johns; He is Vice President, and This is Will Scarlet; He is the Secretary. Finally, this is…” Professor Tuck paused for a moment. “And this is…” The professor began to snap as he mumbled to himself. “Ah,” he exclaimed in success, “Sorry, I remember now. This is Alanna Dale and he is the treasurer.”

Alain made sure to keep his head straight forward because he was completely and utterly sure that his compatriots were looking at him and smirking. He was, of course, correct. 

“These four are among the exemplars of Kopernik academy and will someday make me proud.” It was at this moment that Professor Tuck noticed the smirking faces on 3 of the 4 students. “Well, hopefully within my lifetime at least.” He added.

The four students bowed and in unison exclaimed, “Pleased to meet you”.

Professor Tuck nodded and then looked towards the two strangers. He gestured towards the tall man dressed in a stuffy looking black cloak first. “This is Sherry Hamm Nott and he… and, oh I’m sorry Sherry, is something wrong?” Professor Tuck asked.

“Ah, well, its just,” Sherry stammered for a moment before collecting himself. “Sorry, I go by Hamm Nott, just Hamm Nott. And the pleasure is mine. I work at Leo Dauntless Trading as Director of Internal Security. I assume you have heard of me?” Hamm finished.

Robin stepped forward and answered, “Certainly, Mr. Nott. You are in charge of protection for the largest shipping company in the galaxy. Furthermore, we at Kopernik supply you with a substantial amount of research services and new hardware.”

“Yes, well,” Hamm began, “that is part of the reason I am here after all. However, before that,” Hamm pointed towards his associate, “still have one more person to introduce.”

Robin hadn’t paid much attention to the other person at first. He immediately recognized that as a mistake. With his eyes on her now, he had trouble looking away. In front of Robin stood a porcelain doll of amber eyes. A fair lady with the scent of blooming roses; her very visage was awe-inspiring.

“Robin… Hey Robin,” whispered Johns.

“What?” Robin whispered back.

“It’s rude to stare.” Johns teased.

“Fuck off,” Robin hissed.

“This,” Hamm said, “is the assistant to the Director of Transportation and Logistics, Marian Lew” Hamm Nott took a moment to pause, before proudly adding, “She is also my goddaughter.”

Marian walked over to the boys to greet them personally. 

Hamm continued, “Marian decided that she wanted to take a break from her job, and enjoy the life of a teenager.” He grimaced, “For some reason she decided that school had to be involved.”

“I am sure my boys here have some comments on that regard,” Professor Tuck laughed.

“Indeed,” Hamm agreed. “Never-the-less, I am an accommodating godfather and have taken her to scout out potential schools; Kopernik Academy being one of them.”

Marian had finally made it to Robin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Robin.” Marian greeted.

Robin had difficulty focusing. “Indeed. Nice to meet you as well,” Robin declared. “So, you are looking for schools to attend, Right?” Robin attempted to continue the conversation. “Well, I can tell you that there are few places better than Kopernik.”

“And I am sure you are a purely unbiased source, no?” Marian questioned with a smirk. It only served to make her face even more alluring to Robin. 

“There can be no doubt.” Robin faced the simulator and began to enunciate with his arms, “How many places have such high-tech equipment, after all. Hands-on learning is the best learning.” He turned back to Marian. “Surely you agree?” He finished.

“You certainly make a good point, Robin. I may have to… edit… my school preferences,” Marian replied.

“Well, if you do come here, I’ll make sure to watch after you,” Robin added. “Consider that a promise from the student council president” Robin said through a large smile.

Marian laughed before fixing her crimson hair. “If I do come here,” she began, “all you’ll need to do is watch and admire my work.” Marian turned around and walked away before Robin could respond.

“Robin,” Johns whispered, “it’s also rude to keep your mouth open. Your brain might fall out”

“Fuck off.” Robin response was a little stronger this time. He turned back to face Hamm. He had clearly had been watching Robin and Marian’s conversation. It was difficult for Robin to place the emotion that Hamm had on his face. It wasn’t quite enough to be called anger; probably closer to describe it as a combination of irritation and disgust.

“Yes, well then,” Hamm gritted his teeth as he spoke. “Speaking of the simulator, I did have a second reason to be here.” He walked closer to Professor Tuck and handed him a data slate. “If you are unable to pay the debt within the timeframe specified in here, the Leo Dauntless Trading group will determine that you have defaulted on the specified terms of our agreement. At such a time, it will be up to the Board of Directors to decide how Kopernik Academy is to repay their debt.”

Robin couldn’t help but exclaim. “Wait, what!” Robin looked at Professor Tuck. “What do you mean debt?”

Hamm answered before Tuck could. “It means that your school is behind in its payments to the Group. One of my fellow directors decided that either research submissions are slacking or you haven’t shipped over enough hardware.” He had a loathsome grin on his face as he walked towards Robin. “Doesn’t matter to me to be honest. Either way, it means that your school is out of money and almost out of time.” Hamm leaned in close to Robin; he was face to face with him now. “Here’s some advice, and this will be for free. Don’t use that simulator anymore. Each additional use lowers its resale value.” Hamm pulled back out. “Marian, we are done here. Let’s go look at some other schools”

“Yes, Director.” Marian responded. “Coming.”

Hamm approved and continued, “We will see ourselves out. Good day.” Hamm and Marian began to walk out of the research lab.

Robin looked at his friends. Each boy nodded and simultaneously opened their mouths to yell, “And good day to you… Sherry!” Hamm paused for a moment before continuing to walk away.

Professor Tuck, shook his head as he approached the boys. “I really wish you hadn’t done that,” he said with a sigh. “How does that help us?” 

Robin turned his head towards Professor Tuck; The rage on his face was piercing. “How does that help us?” Robin repeated. He marched towards professor Tuck and exclaimed, “How are you helping us? You just stood there and accepted everything! How did this happen?”

“Rob…” Professor Tuck began, but Robin soon interrupted.

“Holy Fuck!” Robin yelled; He was breathing heavily now. “WHAT HAS THE SCHOOL BOARD BEEN DOING ALL THIS TIME? PUTTING THEIR THUMBS IN EACH OTHER’S ASSESS?” Robin looked at Professor Tuck’s face. At some point, it pivoted from apologetic to stern.

“Are you done?” Professor Tuck was almost whispering. He put down the data slate and walked towards Robin. “Be mindful of what you say Robin and to whom you say it to. I give you and your friends,” Professor Tuck pointed at each of them in turn, “A lot of leeway. Did you believe that your many unsanctioned activities went unnoticed?” Professor Tuck paused. “Did you think your many visits,” he pointed at the simulator, “went un-noticed?” He paused again and gestured mockingly, “Or maybe you thought that it was just a coincidence that it was always unlocked and functional?” 

Robin had no words. Instead, he paced around while taking deep breathes. After a moment to calm himself, Robin spoke much calmer than before, “Yes, yes, I get your point. But my point was just as valid. What happened here professor? Student council oversees the budget AND is in charge of sending out any exports. I know I remember scheduling the shipments to Leo.”

Professor Tuck shrugged, “Pirates. Not much more complicated than that. Projections given to the Director’s Board estimated that at least 40% of the intellectual property being shipped out was seized.” Professor Tuck paused and took a deep breath, as if to collect to collect his thoughts and then continued. “As for why you weren’t informed, well, why would you be?”

Robin almost exploded in anger again, however he was able to suppress the urge; just barely anyway. Instead he just hissed, “I’m sorry, what?”

Professor Tuck had a confused look on his face. “Come on Robin; lets at least try to be serious. What could you, or any of your friends for that matter, have done about this?”

Robin was losing his grip on his control. “Plenty,” Robin seethed. “There was plenty I could have done. I could have re-scheduled the shipments, or organized deliveries better.” Robin tilted his head down. “There is so much I could have done”.

Seeing Robin’s state, Professor Tuck slowly walked towards him and placed a reassuring arm on Robin’s shoulder. “Trust me, there was nothing you could have done,” Tuck softly spoke. He looked at the rest of the crew, “Nor was there anything the rest of you could have done either.”

Alain stepped forward. “How did this happen,” he inquired. “Our shipping schedules should be top secret; who leaked this out?”

Professor Tuck separated from Robin and frowned,” I don’t honestly know. I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while. We lost quite of bit of valuable tech too.” Tuck deeply exhaled, “I even called in some favors that I really would have preferred not to.”

Lit Johns had a quizzical look on his face. “Why was the school not given an exception due to the circumstances? Surely its unreasonable to expect a school to muster the needed resources to repel piracy of this magnitude.” He was half chuckling at this point. “After all, larger organizations than ours have fallen to ruin due to a just a handful of clever pirates.”

Tuck had a tired look on his face. It was clear that he had been trying to deal with this for a while now. “Unfortunately, the contract was ironclad. All services have to be rendered on time; no exceptions.”

Alain had a worried look on his face. “Uh, Professor Tuck, should the faculty be unable to pay the debt, what would happen to the school,” he paused, “and to us? A lot of students dorm here in-between semesters.”

Tuck looked sadder than he had at any point in this conversation. “Well, I suppose the Leo Group would just possess the entire school and all its assets. Whether they would allow all current arrangements to continue, well, who knows? Personally, I wouldn’t hold my breath.” 

Will looked like he was fighting back tears. “But…but, that isn’t fair!” he shouted.

A loud laugh filled the lab. When Professor Tuck finally ceased, he asked Will, “And what made you think that this was going to be fair? In fact, who taught you that life was going to be fair in the first place? It certainly wasn’t me.” Tuck looked at Robin. “Robin,” Professor Tuck started, “What have I always taught you?”

The rage in Robin’s eyes diluted at the sound of Tuck’s question. He stood up straight and answered. “Life is implicitly unfair. There is no one who is preferred by the universe. Life is implicitly suffering.”

Professor Tuck nodded. His head turned towards Johns. “And Johns, what should you do with that understanding?”

“Kill yourself and get it all over with quickly?” Johns joked.

Professor Tuck sighed. “Oh Lord no. Please, Will?”

After glaring at Johns, Will responded. “Pick up your damn suffering and bear it. Try to be a good person so that you don’t make it worse. There are a lot of reasons to be terrible but you should choose to be better. Hell is a bottomless pit because no matter how terrible life is, someone will always find a way to make it worse.”

“A bit much, but I like it.” Professor Tuck turned to the final member of the crew. “Alain, why?”

“…” Alain didn’t answer. He was busy reading the data slate. Professor Tuck walked right up to him and clapped loudly by Alain’s ears.

“Oh fuck.” Alain recoiled. “What?” he asked.

“Alain, why should you bear your suffering?” Professor Tuck repeated.

Not even looking up from the data slate, he answered, “Because you can’t control what the world does to you, but you can control 100% of what you do to yourself.”

Professor Tuck’s eyes were shining. “Damn right” Tuck exclaimed. “What do you know, I can reach these kids.”

Alain raised his hand. “Excuse me,” Alain asked.

Professor Tuck had an incredulous look on his face. “Alain, this isn’t a classroom. You can just talk.”

“Yes well,” Alain started, “That was a good pep talk but this issue,” he pointed at the data slate, “can’t be fixed with just pep. We have a less than a month to repay the debt and I honestly don’t know how the school could repay it. Hell, the semester hasn’t even started; no one is working it the labs!”

“We could get you some boots and a dress” Johns said. “Who knows, maybe enough people will be confused by your name.”

Robin began to walk towards Alain. “Fuck off Johns,” Robin dismissed him. Upon seeing Robin, Alain handed the slate over. Before he could get a good look however, Professor Tuck grabbed it out of his hands. “Hey!” Robin gripped.

“How this issue gets resolved, frankly, isn’t your concern. It will be a matter for the Board of Trustees,” Professor Tuck said. 

Johns gave a dismissive snort. “Oh ya, because they have been handling this situation beautifully.” 

“Never-the-less,” Professor Tuck responded, “It is not your matter to deal with. Go do something fun; someone should today.” Tuck commanded. He turned around and looked at the simulator; he chuckled. “You know, this simulator was based on a real ship. It was owned by the school before being retired.”

“Why,” Robin inquired.

Professor Tuck shrugged. “Politics.”

“Do you know where it is now?” Alain asked.

“Where all the other school junk gets put; into the archives.” Tuck answered.

“Do you think it would still work now?” Alain continued.

“Who knows?” Tuck responded. He clapped both his hand together and exclaimed. “Well, enough about that. I think we have all had enough of being in here for now; at least I have. And now that I technically confirmed your presence in the lab, I can’t leave you alone.” Professor Tuck could see the disappointment begin to build on the kid’s faces. “Now get out,” he said semi-seriously.

“What?” the foursome whined.

Tuck began to shoo the students out. “That’s right, let’s go.” Tuck confirmed.

After leading all the students out of the lab, Tuck had one more look at the simulator before shutting down all the lights and leaving as well.

\---------------------------------------------------------Line Break--------------------------------------------------------  
\-----------------------------------Few Hours Later------------Student Council Room-----------------------------

“Reject it” Robin answered as he frantically reviewed club budget requests. He put the current file down and looked over at Alain. “Listen to me. All budgets have to go down. I don’t care by how much. You saw the deficit.”

“Yes but,” Alain questioned as he pawed through screens, “I, uh, I don’t think this is the right approach.”

“What do you mean?” Robin asked. He looked puzzled.

“Hey guys,” Johns interjected, “Where is Will?” Johns looked around the student council office as if maybe he missed something.

Alain dismissed the question. “He said he had to get something from somewhere. He will be back soon.” Alain refocused on Robin. “Look,” he started, “we both saw the numbers that the school owes and how soon it has to be delivered.”

“Right, so we have to start saving where we can” Robin responded. “So let get to …”

“Except,” Alain interrupted, “This is the wrong approach.” Alain saw Robin’s face and prepared to explain; he took a deep breath and opened his mouth. “Sure, we could cut all the budgets to clubs and extracurriculars; Hell, we could flat out cancel everything…but that still wouldn’t even put a dent in what is owed.”

Robin took a moment to process this. Before he could comment however, Johns decided to open his mouth.

“Uh, Alain,” Johns stammered, “Kinda a grim situation you are painting here.”

“Good,” Robin boomed. “Johns, this is a grim situation. In case you forgot, the school is about to be taken over. All that is here, will be consumed.”

“Bit intense, Robin” Johns muttered. “I mean,” he theorized, “that only happens if the school actually does default. Surely the board has a plan, right? Its not like they will make things worse by ending all income sources; fundraising and all that?” He chuckled. 

Alain and Robin answered the question with silence.

“ah, ya,” Johns faltered. “Well then,” he chimed. Johns used both hands to point at Alain. “In that case, what is that big brain of yours scheming? What plan do you have?”

Alain shrugged. “I don’t know.” Alain looked at this computer. “I’ve been trying to project some potential revenue sources.” He paused to look over his estimates. “So far, your ‘boots and skirt plan’ is among the top 15 plans projected.” 

“Ha,” exclaimed Johns. “Suck it” He laughed.

Robin was busy rubbing his forehead in an attempt to get rid of his growing headache. “So,” he inferred, “If I’m picking up what you are putting down, I am getting the feeling that you believe that there is nothing that can be done?”

“Right-o” Alain answered. He didn’t even look up from his many monitors.

“I refuse to believe that,” Robin replied. His headache was growing. “I completely and utterly refuse to believe that.” He was unrelenting.

“Believe whatever you want to believe Robin,” Alain chided. “The truth is what it is.”

Johns walked up behind Alain and looked over his shoulder. “Did you really find nothing?” His eyes jumped from chart to graph to table.

“Why would I tell you there was nothing, if I found something?” an exasperated Alain responded. He started scrolling through the graphs and began to list them out. “Competitive races, entrepreneurship, pimping, dueling, mining; all of them would fail for various reasons.” He stopped scrolling and looked at Robin. “Largest issue among all of them is due to time constraints. We just don’t have enough time to collect all this money.

Johns wasn’t fully paying attention as Alain spoke. “Wait, a second” Johns faltered. “What was that middle thing you just said?”

“Entrepreneurship?” Alain teased. “It’s a big word; no shame if you don’t know what it means. Basically, it’s people who sell things.”

“Ya. Right. Sure.” Johns grumbled. “Fuck you too.”

Robin sat back into his chair, his mind going a hundred miles a minute. To be honest, he was starting to feel woozy. He supposed that he really couldn’t be blamed if the school went under. Although, as student council president, he still figured it was his duty to try something; anything. But he couldn’t be dumb about it; wasting energy in the wrong manner would only serve counter to his goal. With that said though, even Alain couldn’t think of a path forward.

“Robin,” Johns lamented, “If Alain’s nerd code couldn’t find anything… well maybe that’s it; And who knows? The school does provide a lot to Leo, after all. Maybe, things will end up being more or less the same.”

Alain scoffed upon hearing that. “Ha. Sure. And the computers won’t be automatically pre-loaded with ads.” He gestured with both his hands. “Oh, I have a better idea. Just imagine: We start up the simulator but all the Leo trading ships have been patched out. After all, the ‘ _Leo Dauntless Trading Group_ ’ wouldn’t want to promote anyone raiding their ships.”

Johns snickered. “You are so full of hope Alain. Just a fabulous ray of sunshine.”

Alain had this look on his face; he was indignant and clearly wasn’t in the mood. He turned off all his open screens and looked at Johns. “What do you want? Should I whisper sweet nothings into your ear? Tell you that everything is going to work out for the better? Sorry if you do, because I don’t want to peddle false hope; no one gains anything from that. We need to be accurate about any expectations.”

“You know, I never wanted to kill myself before, but now...” Johns began his quip.

“Enough” Robin interjected. “Please… just enough.” Robin sighed. “Holy fuck, I am sick of this… just all of this.” Robin stood up and walked over to the window. He gazed into the void feeling introspective. “Listen, both of you, I want to help. I am sure both of you do too. But if there is nothing to be done, then there is nothing to be done” He shrugged. “But, regardless of what happens, I can’t listen to this damn bitching anymore” Robin proclaimed. Robin went back to a whisper. “At least its just you two I have to deal with right now.”

Suddenly, the doors exploded open as Will marched into the student council room.

“Mother fucker,” Robin whispered. He looked up and pondered, “Why am I punished more?”

“Robin! Let’s go, right now!” Will announced. He was clearly holding onto some type of tech.

“What? “Robin turned to face Will. The puzzled look upon his face was evident. “What are you talking about? Do you have an idea to help the school?”

“Nope,” Will answered. He tossed Robin an object.

When Robin caught it, he could finally identify it. “Why did you toss me a pistol Will? I am willing to consider a broad spectrum of ideas, but,” Robin paused, “Well, don’t you think assassination is a bit much?”

“Dueling Dices” Will challenged. “Right now; Lets go.”

Robin exhaled; it was strong. “Are you serious right now? We have so many more pressing matters to deal with.”

Will had this dumb boastful look on his face. “Really? Cause from my perspective, I see a bunch of boys bitching and griping in a room; busy with nothing but crying foul.” Will looked cocky. “You must be scared, because you clearly don’t have anything going on right now.”

Robin thought back to the simulator trial. He had honestly not put any focus on it after the events that came directly after. Truthfully, Robin expected that Will would also leave it behind. A frankly disappointed Robin really didn’t want to ask, but he did anyway. “Is this about me usurping command over you during the simulation?” he pondered out loud.

“Nope” Will proclaimed. To Robin’s eyes, he actually seemed like he was telling the truth. “What I am angry about is your insinuation that you are a better shot than me. And I could not let that fallacy to stand.” Will’s eyes were shining. “After all, as Professor Tuck always said, ‘You don’t want to think that you are any better than you are; its not helpful’”.

“Uh, wait a second.” Johns injected himself into the standoff. “Didn’t Professor Tuck mean that in a moral aspect? You know, don’t believe that you are implicitly morally good; no one is above evil and you have to constantly watch over decisions to keep any demons in check.”

“Well, I am using it this way” Will responded.

“Will,” Robin began, “Have I ever expressed to you just how much I hate you sometimes?” He earnestly asked.

Will laughed. “No, but I get it. Now stop being such a bitch and get over here.”

Robin inspected the laser pistol that Will tossed him. “Fine,” he relented. “I guess I have to put this little clown boy in his place”. As Robin inspected his gear to make sure it was all functional, he noticed his gauntlet had an unread message. He looked at Alain. “Alain, do me a favor. I got an email; look into it while I smash Will’s juicy ass.”

Alain turned his many monitors back on and gave a thumbs up. “Can do boss man.” Robin sent over the message and Alain began to read it. It seemed to capture his focus immediately. 

Robin and Will walked to the cleared space in the center of the student council room. Both of them were armed with their pistols and both had an intense focus in their eyes. For both of these students, their concerns for the school were temporarily irrelevant. Will tossed a giant orb to the Johns. “Johns,” he requested “You pick who goes first.”

Johns played with the orb for a second. “Challenged privilege. Robin, you go first.”

Will took a step back and Robin took a step forward. With his face forward, Robin made a confident offer to Will. “How about we skip the easy levels?” Will nodded. Johns heard the deal and set the orb to start at moderate difficulty.

“Are you both ready?” Johns asked. Both Will and Robin nodded. Johns tossed the orb into the air. It reached its peak and before it fell, it started to levitate and rotate. A screen turned on and a pair of digital D8 dice began to spin. The first die rolled a 7 and the second die rolled a 5. Suddenly, a hole opened up on the bottom of the orb and 5 mini-drones flew out and scurried around the room.

“Ha,” Robin laughed. “Too easy. I’ll even give you a handicap.” Robin fired off two shots to the side. “Now, I’ll start.” In quick succession, Robin shot each drone with a single precise shot.

Johns decided to keep score. “Robin, +0 points.”

As Robin stepped back, Will stepped forward. The orb rolled another pair of dice; 8 and 8. The drones flew out of the same hole and scattered. Before Robin could joke, Will opened his mouth. “Shut it” he demanded. With great accuracy and timing, Will succeeded in destroying two drones for every single blaster bolt. Will turned around and began to speak again. “Don’t talk. I think you will have to focus here.”

“Um, Will, -4 points” Johns stammered.

Robin’s eyes narrowed. “Huh. Okay; So, I guess we started.” He turned his gaze to the orb. “Recognize ID: StudCounPres. Override difficulty: Set to Master.” The monitor on the orb reset itself as it heard the command. The D8 dice that were once displayed were soon gone with a shimmer of a black screen; Now, it was a d6 and a d20. “Let’s see whose balls are larger.” Robin proclaimed.

Robin and Will proceeded through their turns. Each getting perfect turn after perfect turn; No wasted shots and no wasted opportunities. The first round had the largest score differential. As the challenge continued, Johns crept over to Alain who was still engaged in his screen.

“You know,” Johns mentioned over Alain’s shoulder, “If you focus any harder, you might be able to just jump into the screen. I only recommend that if you are watching porn, so maybe hold off.”

Alain didn’t respond to Johns, so focused on combing through the email Robin forwarded.

Unperturbed, Johns tried to annoy Alain again. “You know, this match is actually pretty interesting.” Johns looked to see if Alain reacted at all. “The score is -30 to -28, in case you were curious.”

Alain finally seemed to gain awareness of the presence over his shoulder. “What?” Alain stammered. He finally gained awareness of the fierce firefight occurring in the room. “Oh that.” He mumbled. “Guys, make sure not to miss to much. We don’t own this room” Alain roared. His eyes never diverted their focus.

Robin scoffed. “As if we would ever.” He had just finished his turn and was allowing Will to step forward. As Robin waited, he looked over to Alain who was almost certainly devouring the message he sent over. “So, what’s the deal Alain. Should we get you some rubber ducks to help decode it?” Robin heckled.

Upon hearing Robin’s question, Alain’s face pivoted to an uncertain one. “Honestly, I am not sure what I have. I would like it if you could come over here and look.” He requested.

Robin’s response was a simple one. “No can do.” It was now his turn again. He readied his pistol for the drones. “Put it up on the projector” Robin suggested. He finished his turn and allowed Will to take his place.

“Of course.” Alain murmured. He remotely turned on the projector and made the email viewable. The first thing that popped up was an image.

“A spaceship?” Robin hesitated.

“Ya, a spaceship. Specifically, a T _reasure Ship_ that is currently registered under the “ _Leo Dauntless Trading Group_ ’” Alain enunciated.

“Wait, what?” Will faltered. His diverted attention caused him to miss his shot. “Fuck, there goes my lead.” He griped. As he walked back, his head pivoted back to the projected screen. “Okay, Alain. What do we actually have here?” he inquired.

“Right. I mean it’s a very nice jpeg,” Johns mocked, “but I have to assume that there is something else here.”

Alain started to scroll down. “There definitely is,” Alain confirmed. “We have detailed descriptions of point defenses, escorts, interior specifications, transported haul, routes traveled,” Alain paused for a moment and looked at Robin. “By the way, all this stuff should be super fucking secret. Who sent this?”

“Um, a moment please” Robin quickly finished his round, and then looked down at his gauntlet. “Well, doesn’t have a name. The sender feels like a burner account.” He looked back up to the projector. “Scroll all the way down; See if someone signed it.” Robin commanded.

As Alain scrolled down, Will finished his turn and decided to voice a thought. “Why did Robin get this message? This info, well I assume anyway, it must be super valuable.”

“It wasn’t sent to Robin specifically.” Alain corrected. “It was sent to the student council president account.” Alain shrugged. “Although, I can’t quite voice why that distinction matters. Maybe someone was trying to hide, maybe it was by accident. Who knows?” Alain finally got to the bottom. “Let’s see,” Alain started to comb through the message. “Its signed… ‘The Fox’. What the hell does that mean? Is it code?”

“Clearly” Robin concluded. He just finished his round and looked to Johns. “Go through the archives. See if you can find anything having to do with…foxes” Johns walked over to his station and started searching. As Robin waited, he looked at Will. “Final round bitch. Step up”.

Will walked forward and stood at the ready. He watched as the orb output the dice rolls; 14 and 2. “Fuck,” Will yelped. He waited for the snark he assumed that Robin would throw his way. To Will’s surprise though, Robin stayed silent. The drones flew out and blazed within the room. Will focused; his eyes wide open. He watched to identify any and all patterns in the drone’s flight. Will held his breath and fired twice.

All fourteen drones went down. Will walked back. He saw everyone, except Robin, smiling. “Scared Robin?” Will jested.

“Penis,” Robin whispered back. He stepped up and carefully watched the orb. To Will’s glee, it rolled 9 and 1. Meanwhile, Robin’s disappointment was clear.

“Oh, I found something else,” Alain said.

Will could see that Alain had a gleeful grin on his face; Will was curious. “What do you have?” Will asked.

It was clear to Will, that Alain was waiting before responding. Following Alain’s gaze, it seems like he was focusing on Robin’s trigger finger. The drones left the orb and flew around.

“According to this, it seems like the ship,” Alain slow rolled. He could see that Robin was barely paying attention; busy as he was trying to time his shot. Just as Robin looked as if he was ready, Alain finished his sentence. “Is privately owned by Marian Lew” he finished

“What?” Robin sputtered. His pistol prematurely went off and missed all 9 drones.

Both Alain and Will bit their tongues to suppress the rising laughter.

Robin looked incredulously at his pistol. He flagrantly tossed it to the side and walked to the massive window. As he gazed into the void, he admitted through gritted teeth, “Fine, I lost.” He put his hands onto his sides and refused to turn around.

“Something wrong Robin?” Will sputtered.

“Good question Will,” Alain added. “Did my mentioning of Marian’s name displease you in some manner?”

Robin was glad he was turned away. His cheeks felt hot right now. “I have no idea what yall are referring to.” He finally replied.

“Are you quite sure?” Will couldn’t wipe the shit eating grin from his face. “After all, that was a pretty obvious miss. Surely you didn’t purposely miss just to make me feel better.” He theorized.

“Our Robin doing that? Noooo” Alain mocked.

“So, I think I found a refence to Fox in the archives.” Johns looked up. He hadn’t been paying attention, but could still feel the atmosphere. “Did I miss something?” he asked.

Robin happy for the distraction jumped at the opportunity. “Nothing. You missed nothing” Robin replied. He walked over to Johns and asked, “what you got?” While Robin gave Will and Alain a cold stare, the big fat grins on their faces showed that it wasn’t working. Never-the-less, they seemed willing to move on; At least Robin hoped so.

Blind to the tension, Johns explained what he found. “So, I had to go back a few decades but it seems like this school used to have a competitive triathlon team; racing, maneuvering, dogfighting, you know the works. The school’s entry, and perennial winner by the way, was called ‘ _The Hooded Fox’.”_ Johns took a second to breathe.

“Do you have an image of the ship?” Alain inquired.

“Ya, seems like there is.” Johns answered. “Let me pull it up onto the projector.”

A jpeg of the ship popped up on the projector. “Bullshit,” Robin breathed. “That’s the same fucking ship as the simulator.”

“Well, uh, Professor Tuck did mention that the simulator was based on a real ship,” Will remembered.

“Wait. Wait.” The cogs in Alain’s head where turning. “Did Professor Tuck send us the info on _The Maid_?” Alain pondered. He turned back to Johns. “Find the last event that this frigate participated in.” Alain demanded.

“Sure,” Johns accepted; His eyes squinted as he read the archived reports. “Oh, seems like right after the school entered a new competition, the Intergalactic Classic, the judges retroactively decided that it would be the frigate’s last appearance in competitive. Essentially, it was determined that _The Hooded Fox_ was just too good and it was no longer fair for Kopernik to keep using it in future competitions.”

“Seems like bullshit,” Robin reacted. “So basically, the other teams whined to the judges that they just weren’t good enough to compete fairly? Were they all children, or just being run by children?” Robin had a disgusted look on his face.

“Oh, just wait.” Johns tried placating Robin. “It gets better” he promised. He went back to reading. “After their formal complaint was rejected, the Kopernik team seemed to accept the decision and decided to still participate in the competition. However, when the racing round started, _The Hooded Fox_ rammed into every single opposing frigate.” Johns did a dramatic pause. “Not a single competitor finished the race.” Johns smiled. “That was the only year when the Intergalactic Classic went winless.”

“Wow.” Will praised. “Can’t say I don’t respect the hustle, but the repercussions must have been massive.”

Johns still had the grin on his face. “That’s the thing. There was no punishment. The judges couldn’t independently punish Kopernik. The issue first had to be raised by the competing teams and not a single one did. According to the captain of _The Hooded Fox,_ it was speculated that every other team was insulted with the ban to begin with. They saw it as the judges independently deciding that not a single one of them was talented enough to win without unfair intervention.”

“What else?” Will asked. “Nothing happened afterwards?”

“Kinda. The competition ended and off-season started. Granted, the start of the next season had to be delayed because all the schools had to build their ships from scratch.” Johns replied.

Alain seemed to be thinking. “Uh Johns, does it say who was the captain?”

Johns looked for a moment and snorted. “Get this. It was freaking Professor Tuck.” Johns let out a hearty laugh. 

Alain looked as if this confirmed something to him. He turned his attention over to Robin. “This seems convenient.”

Robin nodded. “I agree.” Robin attempted to summarize everything. “So basically, the school is suffering due to pirates. And now we have insight to a literal treasure ship and a frigate that had to be banned for just being too good.”

“Not to mention that all this seems to be connected to Professor Tuck in one manner or another,” Will added.

Johns tried to draw the implied conclusion. “Was, um, was Professor Tuck trying to get us to rob a treasure ship; to become pirates ourselves?”

“It would seem that way, wouldn’t it?” Robin answered. “Any opinions one way or the other?” He asked the group.

“Well, I mean, I don’t want to kill anyone” Will admitted as his eyes darted around.

“That wouldn’t even be an issue” Alain clarified. “The Treasure Ship is completely drone controlled; Will seemed satisfied.

“Do you think we would even be good enough to do it?” Johns asked. “This is real life, not a simulation.” Johns seemed nervous.

Robin looked confident. “I see no reason why not.” He pointed at the Alain’s terminal, still open with the email. “We know everything about _The Maid_. Actual pirates don’t have a fraction of this info when picking a target. I don’t see why we couldn’t pull this off”.

“We are the best crew in the entire school.” Will admitted. “And based on Kopernik Alum, that means something.”

“Wait, wait” Alain interrupted. “Do we even know where this dang frigate is stored. All this is kinda moot if we don’t have it.”

Johns pondered the issue. “Well, it was the decommissioned by the school and Professor Tuck said it would be in the archives.” Johns continued to browse the student council records. “Ah, I found it. Archive storage deck C.”

“That wasn’t really that hard.” Will sweatdropped.  
“Well, no one was really trying to hide it” Johns clarified. “It wasn’t illegal to own or anything. It was just banned from competing and then stored. Likely it was pulled back out when designing the simulator though.” He stated.

“And then banished back to the archives when construction was done.” Robin theorized. Robin paused; he had a thought. “Do you think they would have done maintenance on it when it was pulled out?”

“Maybe?” Johns answered. “I don’t see anything about removing components or parts in here.”

“I have a really good feeling about this” Robin admitted. “I think we could pull this off.” He looked at his friends and continued. “With all our skills and all our knowledge, this is easily possible.” Robin could see that the rest of the gang were still on the fence. He went for his ace in the hole. “Well you know, even if you don’t have believe in yourself, at least believe in the Professor Tuck who believes in you. He sent us this critical information because he thought we could do it. He is blocked by red tape, unable to do anything. But us… we are free to act.” Robin could that everyone was more or less willing. He decided that just one more push was needed. “We could probably help the school a lot with this. We would save all the people that depend on the school and preserve the original vision. And at the very least, we can prevent its name from being changed to something stupid; like Jamshed or Tandon”. He paused and observed them; their resolute faces evident. “Are you all with me?!”. He knew what answer he would get.

“Hell Ya!” Will, Alain, and Johns chorused.

“Good,” Robin nodded. “Let’s go to work.”

\---------------------------------------------------------Line Break--------------------------------------------------------  
\----------------------------------2 Days Later------------ Archive Storage Deck C ---------------------------------

“You know, considering that the simulator was modeled after this frigate, it looks quite different,” remarked Johns.

“Well, the simulator has a lot of extra tech on the outside.” Alain explained. “Stuff used to simulate acceleration and impacts. It adds a lot of extra bulk.”

The four students had finally entered the archives as a group after 2 days of mostly independent preparation. Collectively, they had spent the time making sure that everything was in order. The ship had to be inspected, the weapons had to be inspected, routes had to be mapped out. This wasn’t even mentioning the personal preparation required; each person had to arm themselves and find a useable set of combat armor. Frankly, times like this showed the benefits to the Student Council’s uninhibited access to the research lab.

The students observed the ship as they approached it. The resting frigate was long and bulbous. Structural supports propagated all along its body until it all converged to a massive slab of steel on the ship’s nose. Its wings were currently folded up to conserve space, dense with engines as it was. Surprisingly enough, despite all the filth in the other partitions of the archives, it was pretty clean ship though.

As he got closer to the frigate, Will had a thought. “Why is there a hanger in the archives anyway?” He pondered. 

“What do you think they took it apart and rebuilt it perfectly in here?” Johns jested. “Sometimes its easier just to bring stuff in this way.”

“Enough,” Robin interrupted. “Focus on the task at hand. Don’t waste your brain on extraneous thoughts.”

“What do you want us to think about Robin?” Will asked “Not like much is going on right now.” Will laughed. “Seriously, chill with the gruff commander thing.”

“Have I mentioned that I hate you Will.” Robin asked.

Will was still laughing. “It might have come up at some point.”

The 4 students lowered the entrance ramp and walked in. While the outside of the frigate was clearly different, the interior was a near perfect copy. Once they arrived to the bridge, everyone became tense as they peered at Robin. However, without prompting, he went to the captain’s chair and sat. Will opened his mouth to say something, but Robin was faster. “Don’t fucking say anything.” He ordered. “Get on your seat and make your preparations.”

“Aye Aye” the crew acknowledged. Everyone went to their respective stations and began working on their various preparations: reconfiguring the settings and UI’s to their liking. After a moment, everyone reported a green light.

“Onwards and forwards then,” Robin commanded. The jets on the bottom the frigate’s body fired and raised the ship. It was a little shaky at first but quickly leveled out as Alain’s muscle memory kicked in.

“Mind the bumpy ride,” Alain commented. “As it turns out, a simulator can’t replicate the experience perfectly.”

“Maybe in the future, we will have ships that can handle your shaky hands.” Johns mocked.

“Alain, be prepared to deploy wings the moment we have exited the station. We will go right to the system edge and immediately warp.” Robin ordered.

“Can do,” Alain voiced.

“Um, hey Robin” Will said in a meek voice. “My rear cameras show a person running towards us.” He paused as he waited for the image to clear. “I think it’s Professor Tuck?” Will guessed.

“Probably here to wish us luck. Don’t wait for him though. We have a schedule to keep” Robin ordered.

As Professor Tuck ran towards the frigate, arms waving, _The Hooded Fox_ edged its way through the hanger’s exit. The moment it was a safe distance from the school, the wings deployed and all afterburners ignited; The frigate reached the solar edge in but an instant.

“Engaging warp procedure.” Alain updated. The front windows of the frigate were soon obstructed by the lowering blast doors. A massive shield flared around the ship as a massive portal ripped through the very fabric of space. As the shield drew closer to the portal, the portal slowly became more and more massive as both shield and portal border repelled each other. The ship went in and it was on its way. “Warp successful. We will be at the location in approximately 3 hours.” Alain finished.

“Excellent.” Robin commented. “Make sure to exit a bit earlier than the computer scheduled. We don’t want to end up right on top of _The Maid_ ”. Alain nodded at the order.

Upon hearing the ETA, the members of the student council all relax. Most of them wished to use this time to relax and prepare. However, before anyone could fall to deeply into their own thoughts, a loud clap echoed in the bridge.

“All right then,” Robin echoed as he pulled his hands apart. “I know that this, shall we say mission, was put together a bit quickly. As a result, most of you don’t actually know the plan of action.” Robin shrugged. “Not unexpected after all; everyone had to get stuff prepared and stocked. None of you worried about it though because you all had faith that I would put together a battle plan in that time.” Robin looked at his crew, each of which had pivoted their seats to better face him. Robin continued his speech, “Well, first let me start by saying, thank you, you fuckers, for believing in me. To be honest, this trust disgusts me a little.” Robin could hear Will cackle. “Never the less, despite this irritation, I also feel like I have no choice but to meet your expectations.”

“Here here,” Alain, Johns, and Will cheered.

“We have the advantage that there will be no humans guarded that ship. That is the key.” Robin claimed.

Alain didn’t look quite sure though. “You know that I can’t really outfly a robot, right?” He inquired. “They are literally built for this; and I bet they are significantly more powerful than what we practiced against in the simulator.”

Robin had a wise look on his face; At least what he assumed a wise face looked like. In truth, he looked like an ass. “Robots work on logic. Using their sensors, they average out all inputs and then generate a reasonable response based on whatever data was used to teach it. They literally cannot perform anything outside this input/output system; and certainly not anything ‘creative’.” Robin explained.

Alain wasn’t convinced. “You know,” he admitted, “I confess my fear upon hearing you say ‘creative’.”

Robin shrugged his shoulders. “Fear is irrelevant here. The truth of the matter is that we cannot beat a robot with factually accurate and logical moves. We instead, must be bold and decisive in our movements.” Robin grinned.

“So, I know that you wanted to summarize your speech with ‘be bold and decisive’,” Johns snickered. “But all I heard was that our plan can be summarized as: ‘If we don’t know what we are doing, there is no way the robots will know either’.” Johns concluded.

Robin could tell that Johns’ face told a different tale than his words. The grinning gave away his excitement. “Well, you all made the decision to follow me this far; follow for a little longer.” Robin requested. Upon hearing no complaints, Robin continued in his plan. “After all the escorting fighters are dealt with, we will board the Treasure Ship and continue on to the…” Robin voiced.

“Wait,” Will interrupted. “Can’t help but feel that you glossed over the boarding portion of this mission. How are we going to do this?” he inquired.

Robin smiled. “In a bold and decisive manner!”

“Of course,” Will scoffed. “And I assume we will then head to the treasure vault?”

“Nope.” Robin answered. “We will not.”

“What?” Johns asked. “I thought the sweet fat loot was the whole point of this. Why aren’t we heading there?”

“Well, I figure the situation is as such” Robin began to explain. “Sure, whatever priceless art and gems and whatever is in that Treasure Ship would likely set us for life.” Robin paused, “But, that is only the case if we can offload it. And I don’t know about yall, but I don’t have any black-market connections.” Upon seeing no one respond, he continued. “So, we ignore that. Its likely to be the most heavily patrolled parts of the ship anyway. Instead, we focus on the stuff we can easily take advantage off. There are three priorities: Primary Fuel Shards, Data, and any loose convenient valuables.”

“What counts as a loose convenient valuable? Guns, Armor?” Will speculated.

“Sure,” Robin answered. “If we can pick it up along the way, without it being a bother to our route, its fine.” Robin specified.

“What is the route?” Alain inquired.

“We will start at the engine room. Based on the schematics, its on the upper end of _‘The Maid’_. Two of us will remain to collect Fuel shards. Meanwhile, the other two will head to a maintenance shaft that runs along the spine of the vessel. Using that shaft, we will get to the data servers at which point Alain will use his nerd magic to rip everything he can from it.” Robin summarized. He looked to Alain to see if he wanted to add anything.

Alain took the opportunity. “Based on the specifications we got, the servers aren’t really guarded with any particularly special software. Afterall, it’s a private server on a private Treasure Ship. It was probably presumed that anyone accessing it would be interfacing through some communication medium. But we are bypassing that completely; I will be directly connected to the very hardware of the servers. Nothing will be safe.” Alain finished.

“And I assume you will get something valuable?” Will asked.

Alain nodded his head. “Oh definitely. Beyond whatever e-credits stored in the servers, we can get shipping manifests, trade routes, company secrets; Hell, maybe even the coordinates to some secret treasure planet.” Alain coughed; he got a little excited. “Basically stuff that may not be immediately useful, but will definitely be beneficial before the school runs out of time.” Alain shrugged. “If nothing else, we might find some future targets if this take isn’t large enough.” 

Robin looked confident. “Once Alain gets the needed stuff, we all head back to the ship and like that, we are gone. Simple mission and simple money.” He summarized.

“Surely, you are making it sound too easy,” Will taunted.

“First, shut up” Robin jested. “Don’t ask for things to be harder. Second, I do believe this. We have all the data needed to make such a statement. I know where all the patrols are, where all the items of interest are, and much more. Remember, with primarily robot crews and robot ships, there is zero spontaneity; they have to follow a strict pattern. Their primary defense against looters is secrecy. But for us, well, we have everything we need.” Robin declared. “Any questions?” he added. No one said anything. Robin checked the watch on his gauntlet. “Good. You have about 2 hours and 30 minutes to figure out whatever else you need.” Robin paused before adding, “Don’t worry about his too much; Trust me, it’ll all end up fine.”

The time flew by. Some spent the transit time in thought and some spent the time sleeping. Either way, 5 minutes before warp in, Robin called everyone to their stations. Robin looked at his friends. Alain was doing hand exercises to ensure he was limber. Johns seems to be initiating the radar and ladar systems. And Will, well Robin could see his narrowed eyes through the corner of his face. Robin sighed. He supposed that it was normal to be nervous in this situation; everyone was just doing their best to hide it. It was unfortunate that Will had such a well known tell though. Robin decided that he would have to be the pillar for the group. He was the captain after all. 

“Will,” Robin requested. “Everything good?”

Will turned around in this swivel seat. “Yes?” he confusingly asked. To Robin’s surprise, while Will’s eyes were narrowed, the pupils were dead focused. Will wasn’t scared, he was ready; There was no doubt.

Robin formed a small smile on his face as he apologized to Will for distracting him. Will showed an annoyed smirk as he pivoted back to the gunner controls.

Robin turned to Alain. “You ready Alain?” Alain responded with a 1 fingered salute. Robin chuckled. “Alright smartass, just give us a countdown as we return to normal space.”

The spaceship, currently within warp space, was quickly gliding along. As its trip reached the end of its duration, a shield encompassing the ship began to flare. Slowly, the glowing shield began to rip a hole in the very fabric of warp space. Alain, who was monitoring this on his sensors, began the countdown. “5, 4, 3…” He began.

“Gentlemen,” Robin announced with a sly grin, “This is where the fun begins.”

Alain’s countdown to 0 signaled the moment the gate in warp space was large enough to fit the frigate. _The Hooded Fox_ shot through the portal to exit warp and immediately lost all its momentum in real space. 

“Alain, raise the blast screen so that I can see what we are dealing with” Robin ordered. “Also, be ready to get us moving fast.” Robin looked to the other two members of the crew. “Will, charge up all forward guns. And Johns, any signs of movement out there?”

As the blast screen slowly rose, Johns carefully inspected the ladar screen. “Well, _The Maid_ is dead ahead, although I suspect we are outside its range at the moment. Interestingly enough, I don’t think it is scanning for other ships.” Alain shrugged. “I guess the mechanics figured that no one would find it anyway and didn’t bother to turn it on”

Robin acknowledged the report. “Good, good,” Robin mumbled. 

“Oh ya,” Johns decided to add in jest. “ _The Maid_ is also covered with drone fighters.”

By now the blast screen had completely unobscured the observation window and Robin could see the situation with his own eyes. _The Maid_ definitely wasn’t a pretty ship; it was fat and full of hard angles. The most notable thing about it were all the drones randomly swarming around its body; almost as a bee to a hive. Although, Robin did figure that robots couldn’t ever actually be truly random. There had to be a method working in the background. All that had to happen was a single push to mess it all up. Robin intended his crew and ship to be that push. Robin turned to Will.

“Will, how do you feel like round 2 of dueling dices?” Robin asked.

“Well, uh,” Will started, “Normally I would say no. After all, I like to end on a high note.” Robin could tell that Will had a big stupid grin on his face. “But I’m feeling good.” Will swaggered. “Just point me in the direction you need.”

Johns was looking carefully at the lader. “I count,” Johns hesitated, “I count 12 fighters.”

“Well then.” Robin initiated. “Alain, full speed right over the top of the ship. We are going to do a fly by. Will, get as many of them as you can.”

“Bold and decisive” Will muttered. “Can do.”

 _The Hooded Fox_ quickly accelerated and zoomed towards the Treasure Ship. As the students approached, Robin simply ordered, “Fire when ready. Prematurely invalidate as many warranties as possible.” Will clicked as a response.

The frigate quickly approached the Treasure ship, and every drone slowly began to process the hostile invader. The speed of the ship was evidently faster than the drone’s lag crippled brains. Their bodies re-oriented as they engaged combat mode and faced _The Hooded Fox;_ They didn’t do it fast enough.

Will was watching carefully. He watched the drones as they slowly pivoted into combat mode and began to pivot to engage. Eventually, Will determined that the frigate was close enough and he fired all forward weapons. Angry lances of hot plasma launched from the front of the frigate. At near light speed, they pieced through space until they rained upon the ponderous drones. Several explosions occurred; some of which impacted upon the hull of _The Maid_ , and some of which collaterally destroyed a few fighters that were lucky enough to evaded the initial plasma rain.

“Scanning,” Johns said. “7 drones destroyed. 5 remaining.” At this point, the student’s frigate already flew pass the Treasure ship and was getting farther away by the second. “The other drones are now following and returning fire”.

“Evading” Alain commented.

“No. Circle back to the Treasure Ship. You won’t win in a fair dogfight, not against AI.” Robin ordered. “So, get back to ‘ _The Maid’_ and hug it tightly. The moment you get close, start spiraling along its body.”

“This is interested.” Johns observed. “That ship is scarred from the drone explosions. Why isn’t the shielding on?” He asked.

“I don’t know, but we will take advantage of it.” Robin commented. “Alain, get that spiral as tight as possible. If that ship is ticklish, I want to know.”

“On your orders” Alain followed. 

The student’s ship pivoted around as quickly as it could and flew back to _The Maid_. All the drones on its tail followed the leader and continued to fire.

“Shields at 80%” Johns updated.

“Don’t worry about it Johns.” Robin assured. “This will be fine.” Robin looked to Alain. “There is no cover here except for to _The Maid_ ’s fat body. We will use what we have.”

“And then what?” Will asked. “I still can’t take a shot if the drones are following us.”

“When I was reviewing the data sent to us, I noticed a curious protocol that the drones have.” Robin revealed. “They aren’t allowed to go full speed within a certain radius of _The Maid._ Basically, it’s a safety backup used to prevent accidental collisions.”

“And we are going to abuse it?” Johns assumed.

“Maliciously.” Robin beamed. “Bold and Decisive. Faster Alain!” Robin repeated. “A circle has no start or end point. If we go faster than the drones, then it will be them in front of us.” 

_The Hooded Fox_ engaged all engines and shot forward. The drones, still following, continued to fire. _The Hooded Fox_ got to the close to the ship and started to tilt down to initiate the spiral. The following fighters, as they got closer to _The Maid_ , did noticeably slow down.

“Drone’s speed down by 30%.” Johns updated.

“Excellent,” Robin grinned. “Whenever you have the shot Will.”

It took a few cycles of spiraling around the Treasure Ship, but eventually _The Hooded Fox_ did start to pull away from the drones; They weren’t even firing anymore. All the students were pressed in their seats as the G forces got stronger and they eagerly awaited Will’s shooting. Eventually, they all noticed that the drones where no longer behind, but rather in front; Will fired.

The remaining drones all exploded and further damaged the hull of the Treasure Ship.

Alain pulled the ship away in joy. “Oh baby!” Will rejoiced “Mom, get the camera!”

“Don’t get penis-y.” Robin demanded. “We still have work to do.” On his terminal, Robin selected coordinates and sent them to Alain. “Set the vector to get us to that coordinate.”

“Uh Robin, this is a collision course” Alain stammered.

“Indeed, it is” Robin confirmed. “Seat belts everyone.”

“You know,” Johns mentioned. “Suddenly I am very regretful that we glossed over the whole ‘boarding’ part of this mission.”

“I told you so just doesn’t have quite right the right energy,” Will pondered. “I need to come up with a more douchey way to say it”.

“Silence on the bridge,” Robin ordered. “Alain, full power to engines. Johns, divert all shield power to the front. And Will, on my mark, fire all the front guns”. Robin paused. “Also, helmets on. Pressurize your combat suits.”

The crew complied in silence. _The Hooded Fox,_ a decent distance away from the treasure ship pivoted once more and headed straight to where the engine room should be; the rear near the top. It headed confidently forward; no doubt to its collision.

As Robin waited, he held his breath. “This is the best way. This is the best way,” he whispered to himself. Once Robin determined the distance was close enough, he made the call. “FIRE EVERYTHING,” Robin yelled.

_The Hooded Fox,_ only a short distance from _The Maid,_ ignited in an explosion of light as it launched a storm of fire upon its target. The unshielded Treasure ship recoiled as it was impacted with localized hell. A noticeable crater was beginning to form on its surface. Alain, seeing what Robin intended, aimed the nose of the ship towards the hole.

“Impact in 30 seconds,” Johns updated.

“Bold and Decisive,” was Robins response. 

The collusion between the two ships was loud; or at least it would have been if there was an atmosphere. Due to the fact that the Treasure ship wasn’t oxygenated, no explosion occurred. _The Hooded Fox_ penetrated deeper into _The Maid_ as it kept firing; engines propelling it from the back, as the ship’s body and its laser fire cleared the path in the front.

Robin watched on his terminal. Eventually, he determined they were deep enough. “Abort!” he shouted. Immediately, the engines were killed and the laser fire ended. Everyone seemed a bit nauseous due to the inertial dampeners not quite canceling out all the forces from the impact. “Everyone good?” Robin asked. A chorus of “Fuck off” was the response. “Good. Good. Now find your balls and get up. We still have another half of this mission to do.”

The crew got up and made sure their suits were still operating. They grabbed all their gear and got to the exit ramps.

“There will be guards on the other side. Fire on sight” Robin ordered.

Everyone raised their weapons. Robin pressed the button and the ramps began to lower. Will and Robin jumped out the moment they could fit and observed the situation; 6 androids had come to investigate, but luckily, their weapons weren’t out yet; They were all scrap before that issue could be resolved. Johns and Alain followed once the ramp was fully open. Everyone looked around. They were exactly where they had to be.

“See, it all worked out fine.” Robin assured. He wanted to say more, but he could tell that the rest of his crew weren’t having it. “Okay then…” he murmured. Robin recollected himself, and went back to business. He searched for the maintenance vent and found it near some pumps. “Okay, Alain and I will head through here. Johns and Will, you stay here. Be as loud as possible as you collect these fuel crystals. Draw all attention away from us.” Robin looked thoughtful for a moment. “Make sure they don’t damage the ship though’ he added.

“You mean anymore than it already is?” Will added.

“Yep,’ Robin confirmed. He was already at the vent and removing the grate that covered it. Alain was behind him.

Johns put his hand on Will’s shoulder to reassure him. “We got you covered. Go.”

Robin gave Johns a salute before he dived into the vent; Alain followed.

The vent was small and uncomfortable. It was clearly designed for some very small mechanics. But then again, Robin figured, on these types of Treasure ships, any space not used for storage, was wasted space. Robin supposed that the mechanics just dealt with the tightness. 

“It’s a good thing I am not claustrophobic” Alain remarked.

“Well, I think putting on the combat suit would have revealed if that were the case.” Robin chuckled.

It was a decently long distance that Robin and Alain had to crawl. And during the long crawl, Alain used the many holes throughout the vent to peer into the treasure vaults below.

“You know, there is a lot of stuff in this ship” Alain remarked. He could see statures and vases and paintings; all of them surely highly valued.

“And all of it is worthless to us.” Robin gritted his teeth. The length of the vent was starting to annoy him. “Lets just get to where we have to be and get the job done.” Alain nodded and they both began to crawl faster.

Eventually, a hole in the vent revealed the servers. “Finally,” Robin praised. He broke through the vent and jumped in. “Let’s go.”

Alain followed in. For a moment, he was mesmerized by all the high-tech equipment surrounding him. He eventually collected himself though and began to investigate each server.

“What are you looking for?” Robin asked.

“The master server.” Alain answered. “Most of these are just slave servers. They store info but they aren’t really useful for much beyond what is stored on them. From the Master server, I can just drain everything from all the servers at once…” Alain paused. “Here we go.”

Robin looked at the server that Alain was standing in front of. He couldn’t tell what was special about it, but Alain seemed to know. Alain opened up the server and revealed a bunch of hard drives. “Oh shit, surely we aren’t just going to be pulling drives” Robin moaned.

Alain pulled at the rack of drives until they were fully out; He started to peer at the back of the mount. “No. In the back there should be a controlling board.” He clarified. “It will have a port that I can connect to and just download everything.” Alain reached to his backpack and pulled out a cable. “superluminal fiber optics” Alain commented. “I stole it from the research lab. I don’t care how much data is here. We will have it in an instant.”

“Wow, that must download porn like nothing.” Robin joked.

Alain finally found the port and connected the wire. “This cable can transfer it faster than 100 people could produce it.” The cable glowed blue as it began to copy data to the quantum drive on Alain’s back. In only a few seconds, Alain disconnected the cable. “Alright, I got it.”

“Wow,” Robin was shocked. “You weren’t kidding.”

“I don’t kid about tech Robin” Alain chastised Robin. He pushed the rack back in and closed the cabinet. “Let’s head back” Alain requested.

“Wait,” Robin said. “First, I want to do something.” Robin walked to a bunch of the slave servers and grabbed random drives. “Now, they won’t know what we did.” Robin smiled. “After all, there is no way they would ever expect the magic light cables.” Alain nodded. They both went back into the vent and crawled back.

As they crawled. Alain had a thought he had to mention. “You know, don’t you think that this was kinda easy?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” Robin asked.

“Well, I mean, the drones were all laggy in decision making, The Treasure Ship wasn’t shielded, And we haven’t found any guards.” Alain listed.

Robin gritted his teeth as he sped up his crawling. “Well, I figure that Leo Group assumed that none of it would be an issue. Remember, this was supposed to be a stealth shipment. The primary protection was going to be that no one knew about it. I suppose some engineer got lazy and just didn’t feel like initializing all that extra bullshit.” Robin thought for a moment. “It might save on energy too, I guess.” He added. Alain only grunted in response.

The two eventually got back to their starting area. As they crawled out of the vent, they were greeted by the sight of a massive mound of destroyed androids.

“Well,” Robin chuckled. “I figure this is why we haven’t seen any guards.” He looked at Will. “Do you think you got all of them?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised” Will laughed. “They stopped coming a couple minutes ago.” He lowered his hands to help Alain and Robin up.

Johns exited the ramp to _The Hooded Fox_ at that point; clapping his hands free of any fuel crystal shards. “Well, I think I got every that would fit.” Johns looked back into the loading dock. “All those blaster rifles probably count as loose convenient valuable, right Will?” Johns asked. “What do you think?”.

Robin answered instead. “Sure Johns. Why not”.

“Oh Robin.” Johns was shocked. “Back already?”

“Yep,” Robin answered. “Alain had some magic TosLink cable.” Robin looked at the pile of robot corpses and then to his crew. “Let’s go.” As he walked away, he dropped a timed explosive onto the pile.

Everyone got onto the bridge of the ship and sat at their stations. Alain slowly lifted the ship and activated the front emergency thrusters. The moment he fired them, the ship exploded backwards and also ignited the explosive. The tiny bomb exploded the robots and ignited whatever fuel was still left in the room. The ensuring explosion created a pressure wave that launched the _The Hooded Fox_ even faster out of _The Maid._ Before the ship could U-turn around, Robin looked at the explosion. _The Maid_ had lost an entire fifth of its overall body in the explosion. No one would even know how _The Hooded Fox_ got inside; there was nothing left to inspect.

As the ship rotated, Johns got some info from his sensors. “Robin,” he shouted, “We got a bunch of ships jumping into system. ETA 2 minutes.”

Robin looked at Alain. “Don’t even let them see our tail lights.”

Alain nodded. “Jumping to warp.”

The blast doors once again closed over the observation window as _The Hooded Fox_ jumped into a hole ripped into the very essence of reality.

“Warp successful. ETA to school: 2 hours.” Alain voiced. He was noticeably more tired now that the situation was stable. Indeed, everyone seemed to slump in their seats as the adrenaline faded.

“Good job all.” Robin commented. “I knew we could do it.”

At Robin’s comment, it felt like a great tension left the bridge. Everyone was almost holding their breath due to the shock of what they did. As everyone relaxed for the journey home, Will and Johns even went to sleep. Robin and Alain however, decided to do a preliminary scan of the data.

“Wait a second,” Alain hesitated. “Why is none of this encrypted?” He asked.

Robin was confused. “Wasn’t that the point of downloading from the master server?”

“No,” Alain answered. “That was just to more efficiently download the data. I basically just copied everything from the hardware. But the hardware isn’t were the encryption is; the software is.” Alain continued to scan through the data. “And yet, it isn’t. All his data, just free to us.”

“Well then, at a glance, is there anything interesting?” Robin questioned.

“There is a lot here man. Almost to much.” Alain admitted. “Honestly, I don’t know why that ship even had half this level of info on it.”

“That good, isn’t it?” Robin was confused.

“Maybe Robin. Maybe” Alain breathed.

Robin eventually went to sleep too and left Alain alone to continue looking through the data.

“Wake up,” Robin heard a soft voice. “Wake up!” It was louder now. Robin’s eyes opened and he frantically looked around. “Are we in trouble?” Robin asked.

“No,” Alain said. “We are back at school.” They were no longer in warp space and Kopernik Academy was visible through the unblocked windows.

“Ah,” Robin said. “Well, lets pull in to the archives.” He commanded.

“Can do.” Alain answered. Everyone was awake and stretching to remove the soreness caused by sleeping in combat armor. “Robin?” Alain hesitated.

“Ya.” Robin answered.

“There was one interested thing I found in my search.” Alain answered.

Will was also curious. “What did you get?”

“As it turns out, while this ship is owned by Leo group, it is exclusively managed by Marian Lew.” Alain admitted. “And it was her who ordered the ship out on its journey and approved all the ‘lacking security’ for the flight.”

Robin didn’t know how to respond. Johns did.

“Ha.” Johns laughed. “Maybe you do have a chance Robin. If she is that stupid, who knows; maybe she will make the mistake of settling for you.”

“Shut it,” Robin muttered. “Bring us in Alain.” The ship slowly went towards the open hanger.

“Bold and decisive Robin,” Will couldn’t help himself. “Remember, be bold and decisive.”

Robin didn’t respond; Him grinding his teeth stopped any words from coming out.

The ship slowly flew into the hanger, and to the surprise of the 4 students, Professor Tuck was waiting for them. Confused, all 4 boys left the bridge and existed the ship via the exit ramp. Professor Tuck’s face was not happy.

“What the hell do you think you are doing!” Professor Tuck roared. “How did you possibly think you would get away with stealing school property for a joy ride!”

“Joy ride?” Robin asked. “What do you mean? We thought you wanted us to do this?”

Professor Tuck had a face of rage. “What?” he cautioned.

“We went to rob _The Maid_ using the data that you sent us.” Will casually mentioned.

“The what?” Professor Tuck asked.

“It’s a treasure ship,” Robin explained. “The one you told us about.”

Professor Tuck exploded. “Why would you think that I wanted that?”

Robin opened up the message on his gauntlet and showed it to his teacher. “This.” he clarified.

Professor Tuck looked down at the gauntlet. As he read, the face of rage morphed into a face of shock. “How did you get all of this?” he frantically asked.

The 4 students were all confused. “You mean you didn’t send us this?” Will asked. “Who did then?”

Robin began to open his mouth, but before he could, his gauntlet dinged again. He looked down. He had another email. Everyone was dry mouthed as they looked at him. 

“Well,” Professor Tuck said, “What does it say?”

Robin opened up the message and began to read it. “Congratulations on your successful raid and good work on all fronts. I will be sending you data on more ships in the future. Be ready though, I won’t be able to make future targets as easy as this one… I look forward to working with you in the future… Robin.” Everyone became noticeably more nervous when they heard Robin’s name called out. Robin continued, “Signed The Fox”.

Everyone was silent. Alain finally began to voice the thought that each of his friends was beginning to form in their heads. “You don’t think that this leak was from…” Alain hesitated.

Johns seemed to accept the situation faster than everyone else. He looked at Robin with a big fat grin and opened his mouth, “Fox indeed.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello All! I am M.C. Deltat. Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Also, I hope you can forgive any major issues; this was my first ever fanfic after all. This fic was written as part of a challenge. I had to combine Robin Hood with space and high school. Clearly, I went anime with it. Anyway, Ill be posting more stuff as we go.


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